Ken Bates's face on the final whistle, contorted in bearded rage as he stormed from the directors' box, said it all. Chelsea may remain just below the bottleneck at the top but there was no fooling the chairman. Away from home it remains the same old story.

This stalemate was not without incident but did little to cheer the chilly crowd. The locals were warmed only sporadically by Everton's commitment which deserved some reward in the first half; those travelling from London left shaking their heads, bemused by the eccentricities of Claudio Ranieri's team selection.

The twinkle-toed Gianfranco Zola aside, the only Chelsea player with any attacking verve was Boudewijn Zenden. The Dutchman, introduced after half-time, immediately forced Steve Simonsen to spill the ball and Zola, forced wide on the rebound, saw his follow-up shot deflected clear. Chelsea were suddenly balanced and their new-found poise prompted chances.

Yet throughout the first half they had been shapeless and shambolic, with Emmanuel Petit uncomfortable on the left and Frank Lampard out of his depth in the centre. The quizzical looks among the visiting supporters said it all: why not start with Zenden, a winger playing on the wing?

"He doesn't have 90 minutes in him," explained Ranieri. "Sure, we improved when he came on and Petit moved inside but I prefer to play Boudewijn just for the second half. He had pre-season with Barcelona and hasn't shared the same preparation as his team-mates here."

That excuse smacked of the surreal. Zenden, who joined for £7.5 million sterling before the start of the season, played and scored in the first game against Newcastle. His pre-season may have been spent in Spain but he has had almost three months to integrate. Only at Chelsea . . .

"Boudewijn agrees with me," added Ranieri. "We need him 100 per cent because he is very important for us. As it was, I was neither happy nor unhappy with our performance. A draw was fair."

Zola's free-kick four minutes from time, tipped acrobatically on to the bar by Simonsen, might still have earned the Londoners their first league away win in five games. In the end, they were left frustrated at their inability to beat a side forced to play a full-back as a makeshift striker.

So threadbare were Walter Smith's options that Steve Watson plugged that gap - the 27-year-old played a handful of games in that position for Newcastle, even scoring once against Liverpool. He proved a handful yesterday, nodding over the bar from Alessandro Pistone's cross, before Duncan Ferguson relieved him of striking duties late on.

"Duncan's not fit and we needed someone to give us more physical presence up front," Smith explained. "Steve's played there before, even if it was in a previous life. He did a job for us, but all my players showed a terrific attitude."

That attitude had Chelsea floundering in the first half. With Thomas Gravesen's tireless running and aggressive tackling to spur them on, Scott Gemmill sent Thomasz Radzinski away only for the Canadian to drag his shot wide.

Mark Bosnich, later to limp off after pulling a thigh muscle while taking a goal kick, then did well to deny Gemmill after a rare John Terry mistake.

EVERTON: Simonsen, Pistone, Weir, Stubbs, Unsworth, Alexandersson (Ferguson 74), Gravesen, Gemmill, Naysmith, Radzinski, Watson. Subs Not Used: Gerrard, Pembridge, Gascoigne, Xavier. Booked: Gravesen.

CHELSEA: Bosnich (Cudicini 80), Babayaro, Terry, Gallas, Melchiot, Jokanovic (Zenden 45), Dalla Bona (Stanic 45), Petit, Lampard, Hasselbaink, Zola. Subs Not Used: Le Saux, Gudjohnsen. Booked: Jokanovic, Melchiot, Babayaro.

Referee: M Halsey (Welwyn Garden City).